Shopping cart child seats/baskets and shopping cart handles tend to be unclean and dangerous for children. Many types of bacteria, mold, and yeast have been found on shopping cart baskets and handles, including Coliform, E. coli, and staphylococcus. Dust, dirt, soil and fecal matter has also been found on shopping cart handles and baskets. Furthermore, the national SAFE KIDS campaign has reported dramatic statistics regarding the dangers of shopping carts for children, such as the fact that at least five children since 1985 have died as a result of shopping cart accidents. Also, in 1998, nearly 25,600 children were treated for shopping cart injuries, with eighty-three percent of the injuries accounted for by children under four years old (according to the national SAFE KIDS campaign).
Many parents use child-seat liners positioned in the shopping cart basket of a shopping cart in an attempt to protect their child and make their child more comfortable while sitting in the shopping cart basket during a shopping trip. While many child-seat liners are known, many of these are hard to use, don't satisfactorily protect the child, or may fall out of the shopping cart basket. What is needed is a child-seat liner that is easy to secure to the child seat and that protects the child from contact with unclean shopping cart handles and baskets.